Slaves and Hirelings

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Today, the second reading and the gospel appear to give answer to the first reading. In the first reading, Job laments about the drudgery of life. It is interesting that he does not mention any of the dramatic misfortunes that may befall one in life–indeed, that befall Job elsewhere in this book of the Bible. And yet, we can relate to his point of view. We kill ourselves every day, often in monotony, and what do we have to show for it? Like slaves or hirelings, we pitiably crave any wage or respite that we can get.

Jump to the Gospel. We see Jesus in a flurry of activity, responding to the immense demand that has come upon Him for His healing and mercy. Into the lives of the likes of Job, hope and meaning has come. Into the likes of your life, and of mine. For through the prism of omnipotent love, love which we can adopt and spread farther in our own lives, suddenly the drudgery is drudgery no longer; suddenly it all makes sense–glorious sense.

This is why, in the second reading, unlike the hireling described by Job, St. Paul is content to preach the Gospel for free, without any recompense. He is almost jealously protective of the gratuitous nature of his gift of self for the Gospel–because there is only one treasure that he desires, the treasure that is the key to meaning in his life: The omnipotent love, and the opportunity to love, that comes with Jesus Christ.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to make your daily prayer, undoubtedly fraught with innumerable involuntary distractions to the point that it sometimes seems you paid almost no attention at all–ask Him to make your daily contemplative prayer bear the inestimable fruit of love in your life. Ask Him to teach you love, to help you truly to perceive that pearl of great price for which it worth it to sell everything.